In general, when a human views an object nearby, a three-dimensional (3D) effect occurs due to a binocular disparity of both eyes which are separated from each other by approximately 65 mm in the horizontal direction. That is, both eyes view two different images of an actual object, the two images are transferred to the brain through the retina and the optic nerve, the visual cortex (an area of the cerebral cortex at the back of the brain which processes visual information) combines the two images, and thus a 3D or spatial effect occurs in relation to the object.
A virtual 3D display device is a system that provides a virtual 3D effect in a 2D display device having a particular tool that uses the phenomenon of binocular disparity. That is, the virtual 3D effect occurs by simultaneously displaying two binocular images on a screen so that each binocular image is viewed by each eye, respectively. In order to display the two binocular images on a screen, in most cases, the virtual 3D display device displays the two binocular images by alternately arranging pixel lines of the two binocular images or alternately displays the whole two binocular images with a predetermined time delay. When the two binocular images are displayed on the screen, a right-eye-view image is viewed by a right eye and a left-eye-view image is viewed by a left eye due to a hardware structure of a display device in an autostereoscopic method, and a right-eye-view image is blocked from being viewed by a left eye and a left-eye-view image is blocked from being viewed by a right eye by using special glasses such as polarizing glasses or liquid crystal display (LCD) shutter glasses in a stereoscopic method.
Meanwhile, a stereoscopic image for virtual 3D display may be generated by using a binocular shooting method in which two cameras, which are separated from each other by approximately 65 mm, take different images at the same time. However, by using the binocular shooting method, complicated and inconvenient considerations and processes are additionally required for shooting and editing and thus time and costs are greatly increased compared to a normal shooting method of moving pictures. Therefore, the binocular shooting method of moving pictures is not widely used except for in a few special cases.
Recently, in accordance with the mass production of high-quality large-scale flat panel LCD display devices, hardware technology, such as a virtual 3D display device, has been highly developed and is expected to become widely popular in the near future. However, 3D industries have not developed further, since there are insufficient 3D contents, namely stereoscopic moving pictures which can be easily and generally utilized by public users.
Accordingly, a technology for converting a common 2D image, which includes a general still image or moving picture into a stereoscopic image at low cost and in a short time, using an image-processing computer software or hardware is required. That is, a technology for converting a monocular source (common 2D digital image), which is taken by using one camera, into a stereoscopic image having a 3D effect of comparing quality to that taken by using a binocular shooting method is required.